Epilogue I: The Time to Say It. “The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. Maybe they always have been and will be. Maybe we've lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we've found each other. And maybe each time, we've been forced apart for the same reasons. That means that this goodbye is both a goodbye for the past ten thousand years and a prelude to what will come.” ― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook Louis The wide expanse of snow stared at me, with sparse tundra trees on the outskirts. Our feet trudged on the snow to a clear frozen sheet of ice, where you could see the stillness and clarity of the water below it, my knees almost knocked together when I slipped. It was beautiful. overwhelmingly beautiful in the largeness of space in

